Retired Riverside Fire Chief Steve Earley will not be rehired as a $100-an-hour consultant to mentor three acting chiefs who were to take turns heading the department, city officials said late Tuesday, Jan. 7.

City Manager Scott Barber dropped the plan after criticism from the public and the firefightersâ union, which voted earlier Tuesday to oppose it.

Instead, Deputy Chief Mike Esparza will serve as acting chief until Barber can find an interim chief outside the department. The interim chief will then serve as a national search is conducted for a permanent chief. Earley will not be rehired in any capacity, Barber said.

Input from residents and fire personnel led to the change in direction, Barber said.

âItâs especially important that our city residents have a good deal of confidence in our public safety and the Fire Department is a critical part of that,â he said.

Earley, who has been chief since 2009, retired Dec. 27 after 32 years with the city and was scheduled to come back Friday, Jan. 10, as fire administrator, a position created so he could offer his expertise on the cityâs ambulance policy and the county emergency medical services system, and to help guide three employees who were to serve as acting chiefs for three months each â" Esparza from Dec. 27 through March; Division Chief Bill Schellhous from April through June; and Division Chief LaWayne Hearn from July through September.

But questions soon arose about whether the acting chiefs would be overshadowed by their former boss, who would keep his office and work on key issues such as contract negotiations, and why the city should pay Earley as a consultant to do something that had been part of his job description as chief.

A city news release sent Tuesday evening said the plan would have cost âabout $235,000 less than if Earley had not retired,â but detailed figures explaining the difference were not provided.

Riverside City Firefightersâ association President Tim Strack said 54 of the unionâs 204 members at a Tuesday meeting unanimously voted against the plan. About 70 of the associationâs members were on duty at the time of the vote.

In an open letter, Strack wrote that bringing Earley back âis counterproductive for the futureâ of the department and âa poor use of public resources.â Three months is not long enough to develop a fire chief, and with Earley sticking around, the acting chiefs wouldnât have the necessary autonomy to run the department, Strack wrote.

Both Strack and Scott Blair, who heads the nine-member Riverside Fire Management Group, said they werenât asked for input before the plan was announced. Blair said his members, who include Esparza, Schellhous and Hearn, did not take a position on the issue.

Barber said his choice to try the three-chief arrangement does not mean he thought no one in the department was qualified to become chief.

âI think there was an opportunity for three people who had the potential to be fire chief, for us to see them function in the job and for them to have someone with 32 yearsâ experience assist them in becoming more prepared,â he said. âThere was a lot to like about that plan.â

Strack and Blair say more could have been done to mentor a successor.

For at least the past four years, the Fire Departmentâs annual goals, as listed in the city budget, have included âsuccession mentoringâ or âdevelop and implement succession planning.â

âMentoring for the position of fire chief should have been ongoing for the past several years, but it wasnât,â Blair said.

Strack said 40 or 50 of his members expressed their concerns on several issues â" including the succession issue â" to Barber about a year ago.

âWe were told that those concerns were going to be addressed,â he said.

Barber said heâll be looking for a retired fire chief or other high-ranking official to serve as interim chief and hopes to find a permanent chief as soon as possible.

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